MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Filmmaker David Lynch has died. He was 78 years old. He created off-kilter classics such as "Blue Velvet," "Wild At Heart" and "Mulholland Drive," and the innovative TV series "Twin Peaks." Kyle Norris has our remembrance.
KYLE NORRIS, BYLINE: David Lynch's work was weird. His first full-length film was called "Eraserhead." It's a surreal horror film in black and white.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ERASERHEAD")
LAUREL NEAR: (As Lady in the Radiator, singing) In Heaven, everything is fine. In Heaven...
NORRIS: Lynch started making "Eraserhead" in his mid-20s. The film initially got mixed reviews in 1977 but became a hit in midnight movie houses. David Lynch was born in Montana. He spent much of his childhood in Boise, Idaho, in the 1950s. And Lynch looked like he stepped out of the 1950s, with his messy pompadour of silver hair. He became established with movies such as "The Elephant Man" and the 1984 version of "Dune." Lynch told NPR in 2007 he made them by focusing on an idea.
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DAVID LYNCH: When I get an idea, I see it, hear it, feel it. It's, like, just there in your brain. There's an idea. It comes to life. You fall in love with some of these ideas.
NORRIS: He would stitch ideas together, he said, and decide what they all meant - like in "Blue Velvet," a film from 1986.
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ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: (As Dorothy Vallens) Get out of there. Get out. Put your hands up - on your head. Do it.
NORRIS: Lynch started with an image - a severed ear in a field. It led to a twisted mystery with sexual violence and a criminal underworld, set in a picturesque small town.
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ROSSELLINI: (As Dorothy Vallens) What's your name? What's your name?
NORRIS: Lynch liked to explore American innocence through imagery, said critic Melanie McFarland.
MELANIE MCFARLAND: The white picket fence, the girl with the saddle shoes, the homecoming queen, you know, the clean-cut FBI agent.
NORRIS: McFarland said Lynch pulled back that wholesome veneer.
MCFARLAND: And gets at the darkness underneath all of it.
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NORRIS: McFarland said Lynch did this in the 1990s television series "Twin Peaks." "Twin Peaks" was a fictional series about the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer, investigated by a quirky FBI agent, here driving into the town that shares the show's title.
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KYLE MACLACHLAN: (As Dale Cooper) Lunch was $6.31 at the Lamplighter Inn - that's on Highway 2 near Lewis Fork. That was a tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat, slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee. Damn good food.
NORRIS: "Twin Peaks" was a mashup of styles - part mystery, part supernatural and part soap opera. McFarland said "Twin Peaks" transformed television because it was cinematic and complex.
MCFARLAND: This is not a straightforward story. There were dream sequences. There were very elaborate ideas of identity. In a very specific sense, Laura Palmer was not just Laura Palmer, right? No one was just one thing.
NORRIS: McFarland said "Twin Peaks" influenced later shows such as "Mad Men," "The Sopranos," and "Six Feet Under." One of Lynch's masterpieces was the movie "Mulholland Drive," from 2001. It blurs reality with the world of dreams.
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PATRICK FISCHLER: (As Dan) There's a man - in back of this place. He's the one who's doing it. I can see him through the wall. I can see his face.
NORRIS: David Lynch was also a lifelong painter and was devoted to transcendental meditation. But he will be remembered for stories that were dark and unsettling, a style now known as Lynchian.
For NPR News, I'm Kyle Norris.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALAIN BELLAICHE'S "SEA FLUORESCENT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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